News: Knife Girl announces new album CUM & shares new single ‘Fragile’

Knife Girl, the project of 23 year old songwriter/producer Lili Aslo, has announced that on November 17 she will release her new album CUM via Soliti/Playground. CUM is a deeply personal record centred around Aslo’s experience of sex as a transgender woman. The album sees the ever evolving artist moving away from the indie-rock of her 2022 debut album Uniform, opting instead to straddle the technicolour worlds of hyperpop and dance music.

Alongside the announcement, Knife Girl has also shared one of CUM’s most exuberant and euphoric pop moments, ‘Fragile’. “‘Fragile’ is about looking for a deeper connection in a casual sex relationship. I wanted to try and express the frustration and pain as well as the lust and beauty of it in this song,” Aslo tells us.

On the themes of her new album, Also explains: “CUM is about the huge changes I experienced with my sexuality and gender identity upon starting hormone replacement therapy. I wanted to explore those themes of sex and gender in a sincere way without sensationalising or romanticising my experience. Though sex and relationships are lovely, there is a greed and ugliness to it as well. And though my gender expression fills me with euphoria, the fear of violence and hate crimes haunts me daily.

“I’m assuming many people will think of this album as shallow and gimmicky without giving it an honest chance. I purposefully named the album “CUM” to provoke those kinds of people. I’m writing songs about sex as an artistic choice, not because it’s an easy way out for me. I set out to create an album explicitly from a trans perspective. I also wanted to be openly sexual. I’m proud that I did that.

“The album’s sound expands on what I was doing on my OONA EP from 2021, adding more dance elements to it. I produced the songs with the idea of wanting them to be danceable live. The sound design is inspired by some of my favourite producers like SOPHIE and A.G.Cook.”

CUM: